04/27/2009
Reverse engineering involves taking something apart and analyzing it in detail. With today’s post, I’d like to reverse-engineer the process of sickness and disease. So let’s start at the end…
The final component is the name of the condition itself. This is called a diagnosis. Before a diagnosis can be labeled, there must be a series of events or sensations that precede its identification. These are called symptoms. Before symptoms can result, a function or process must take place abnormally. This is considered malfunction. Something must specifically disrupt or cause this malfunction to occur; this is known as interference.
Prior to this interference, functioning is normal. “Normal function” is the definition of health.
As you can see, sickness is a four-step process. When a healthy person experiences some form of physical, chemical or emotional interference, it can disrupt the normal function of their body, causing malfunction. Given the opportunity, this malfunction develops into one or more symptoms. A collection of symptoms is labeled with a diagnosis.
In a medical model of health care, symptoms of a diagnosis are most commonly treated with pharmaceutical drugs. This symptom-treating approach focuses exclusively on the second half of the process.
Assuming the medication successfully stops the symptoms, you’re still left with steps 1 and 2 of the problem. If the symptoms reoccur when you stop taking the medication, then the problem wasn’t actually solved, and you were never really “cured.” In order for the problem to be truly eliminated, the first half of the process must be addressed.
The “specific chiropractic” model reverse-engineers the process of sickness and disease. Instead of masking symptoms, we target steps 1 and 2 by locating and correcting the interference.
Eliminate the interference and function will be restored. With the return of normal function, symptoms disappear naturally. This is true health restoration.
Which approach makes more sense to you?
